In his remarkable 17-year career with Manchester United, during which he played in no fewer than 688 matches, Bill Foulkes, who has died aged 81, scored only nine goals. But one of them was among the most important ever scored for the club. It came in the second leg European Cup semi-final of 1968 against Real Madrid in a packed Santiago Bernabéu stadium. United had won the first leg at Old Trafford, 1-0, but for much of the first half they were outplayed, finding themselves 3-1 down and therefore 3-2 behind on aggregate.

David Sadler with an unorthodox flick made the score 3-2 then, ignoring cries of warning from his team-mates, Foulkes, the 36-year-old veteran at centre-back, trotted up field. When George Best beat his man and crossed, there was Foulkes to side-foot the ball into the net and United into the European Cup final.

It must have been all the more satisfying for Foulkes, in that as long ago as 1957, in the first leg of the European Cup semi-final, also at the Bernabéu, playing right-back, his original role, he had been given a torrid time by the flying Real left-winger, Paco Gento, who was far too fast for him. United's manager, Matt Busby, had eulogised Gento's pace before the game, which prompted the young Bobby Charlton to ask himself, "What did that mean to Bill Foulkes, who had to mark him?" In the event, Foulkes gave away Real's first goal in a 3-1 defeat when he fouled Gento, the referee played the advantage rule, and the left-winger raced on to set up a goal for the Argentinian Héctor Rial.

Foulkes, who was 5ft 11in tall and weighed just over 13 stone, was born in St Helens, Lancashire. In his teens he became a miner at Lea Green colliery, and played for Whiston Boys Club. His talent came to the notice of Manchester United and it was there that he spent the whole of his professional playing career.

His first-team debut came against Liverpool in December 1952, and he gained a single cap for England, against Northern Ireland in 1954. Only then did he give up part-time work at the colliery, and from 1955 was faced with the difficulty of reconciling his football commitments with doing national service.

League championship medals came in 1956, 1957, 1965 and 1967, and Foulkes was a member of the United team that beat Leicester City in the FA Cup final of 1963. He was one of the survivors of the horrific crash of the team's aeroplane at Munich airport in February 1958, returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade. A couple of weeks later, a United side carpentered together by Jimmy Murphy, the acting manager while Busby was recovering from his injuries, met Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford before 65,000 impassioned fans in the FA Cup. "Sheffield had no chance," thought Foulkes, "and I felt sorry for them. The crowd was hysterical, and I wasn't far off being the same way." United won 3-0, and went on to reach the cup final.

In the Munich disaster, the team had lost both their first-choice centre-halves, Mark Jones, who had died, and Jackie Blanchflower, so badly hurt that he would never play again. In due course Foulkes moved into the middle to replace them, a dominating and implacable figure nicknamed "Rock Face". He could not be thrown off his game by physical challenge, though he did have troubles when faced by a quick centre-forward. It was at centre-back that he won his European Cup medal at Wembley, in the United team that beat Benfica 4-1 after extra time, following their success against Real Madrid.

Only Charlton in Foulkes's day, and Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs since, have made more appearances for United. Charlton said of him: "He was as hard as nails, as tough as teak – I was always glad I didn't have to play against him."

After his final first-team appearance in 1969, Foulkes coached Manchester United's reserves, who tended to find him a hard taskmaster. In 1975, he went to the US, where he managed the Chicago Sting and the Tulsa Roughnecks. From 1980, he managed clubs in Norway, and from 1988 to 1991 he was in Japan, managing FC Mazda of Hiroshima.

Foulkes is survived by his wife, Teresa, daughter, Amanda, and sons, Stephen and Geoffrey.

• William Anthony Foulkes, footballer, born 5 January 1932; died 25 November 2013